The Department of Health’s director of immunisation Professor David Salisbury has said nurses have a responsibility to be vaccinated against swine flu, after a Nursing Times survey reveals one third of frontline nurses do not want the jab.

Up to a third of frontline nurses are not currently planning to get immunised against swine flu when the vaccine becomes available later this year, a snapshot survey by Nursing Times reveals.

Top among the reasons for rejecting the vaccine are concerns about its safety, and a perception of the infection as ‘mild’, suggests the online survey of nearly 1,500 Nursing Times readers, of whom 91% describe themselves as frontline nurses.

The warning of frontline doubts about swine flu vaccination came as the Department of Health revealed its timetable for initial vaccination last week.

Overall 30% of survey respondents answered ‘no’ when asked if they would get immunised when the vaccine became available, compared with 37% who replied ‘yes’. A further 33% remained undecided and answered ‘maybe’.

Of those who said they would not get vaccinated, 60% said concern about the safety of the vaccine was the main reason. A further 31% of respondents said they did not consider the risks to their health from swine flu to be great enough, while 9% thought they would not be able to take time out of work to get immunised.

‘I would not be willing to put myself at risk of, as yet, unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution,’ said one respondent.

Another, who said they were yet to make up their mind over whether to have the vaccine, added: ‘I have had the seasonal flu vaccination three times and on each occasion was very poorly for several days afterwards. It can give you flu-like symptoms, which in my case were bad enough to put me in my bed.’

A further respondent said: ‘I have yet to be convinced there is a genuine health risk and it’s not just government propaganda.’

Speaking to Nursing Times in response to the survey results, Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, said it was unfortunate that nurses could ‘knowingly leave themselves at risk’.

‘They have a duty to themselves, they are at risk. They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families. I think you solve those responsibilities by being vaccinated,’ he said.

With regards to safety concerns about the vaccines, he added: ‘The evidence that we’ve had is sufficient to persuade the regulators that these are vaccines that will be licensed.’

Professor Salisbury’s comments follow a warning in July from chief medical officer for England Sir Liam Donaldson that swine flu could leave up to 12% of the NHS workforce on sick leave at any one time. The NHS Confederation also called on nurse managers to ensure that their staff were vaccinated, particularly those in the acute sector, in guidance published last month.

However the survey results suggest the threat of swine flu is unlikely to overcome reluctance of frontline nurses to get vaccinated. Only a third of survey respondents said they received the seasonal flu vaccine last winter.

Official statistics for the acute sector are even worse. Only around 13.5% of hospital nurses received seasonal flu vaccination last winter, according to the Department of Health’s report on flu vaccine uptake among healthcare workers in 2008–2009.

Nursing Times understands that the Department of Health is in discussions with groups, including the RCN, on ways to ensure a high uptake of swine flu vaccine was high among frontline nurses.

Greta Thornbory, professional development director of the Association of Occupational Health Nurse Practitioners, said occupational health nurses would need to help frontline nurses make an educated judgement about the vaccine.

She said: ‘Occupational health nurses will have to be completely clued up about the evidence on the swine flu jab, so they can give up-to-date information to nurses and anyone else who might have the vaccine.

‘This advice should not just be verbal, occupational health staff should consider putting it in a leaflet. Putting this kind of advice on posters will not work,’ she added.

However, one survey respondent suggested pressure from occupational health nurses could have an adverse effect on uptake.

‘I think many nurses resent the pressure put on them by occupational health staff to have the seasonal flu vaccine, and this may influence their decision regarding the swine flu vaccine,’ the respondent said.

As widely reported last week, Sir Liam Donaldson also set out the government’s proposed timetable for vaccinating priority groups against swine flu, which includes frontline healthcare workers (see box).

Frontline nurses – working in primary care settings as well as acute settings – can expect to be offered vaccination in October, subject to the granting of licences by the European Medicines Agency.

A decision on licensing is expected from the EMEA at the end of September once versions of the vaccine have undergone multicentre trials – run by the University of Leicester and the Health Protection Agency – to assess immunity levels and identify any side-effects.

Nurses who opt to have the vaccine can expect to be given one of two products, both of which will require two jabs roughly three weeks apart.

The majority of swine flu vaccine will be the adjuvant version manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, which contains 4mcg of antigen. The second type, manufactured by Baxter, is a whole virus vaccine containing 7.5mcg of antigen.

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HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Secretary of Health today released guidance on Novel H1N1, also known as swine flu, for elementary and secondary schools in an effort to keep kids and staff healthy and flu-free this school year.

"The most important message for parents is that sick children should not go to school. The same applies to teachers and staff. If you are sick, the best place to be is at home," said Secretary of Health Everette James.

"Pennsylvania schools should take steps to prepare for swine flu this fall and winter because this virus has had a significant impact on children between the ages of five and 19 years. The revised guidance provides recommendations to mitigate the impact of influenza in schools, as well as limit the spread once flu is identified among students or staff members," James added.

The department's guidance is compatible with recently released recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The guidance is meant to limit the spread of influenza while reducing disruption to schools.

Hand washing, cough etiquette and keeping the environment clean can also significantly help reduce the spread of disease.

The Department of Health is recommending that those who are sick with influenza-like illness should stay home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever and are no longer taking medication to reduce the fever. In most cases of flu, this means three to five days after the onset of illness.

The Department of Health strongly encourages school districts to work closely with local or state health officials to determine the best course of action should an outbreak happen.

The departments of Health and Education are holding a series of webinars with school districts across the state to talk about the new school guidance and to share what is expected this coming school year.

"We will work closely with schools and child care facilities to help them be on the lookout for children showing signs of influenza and have appropriate response measures in place," Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak said. "School district officials should also maintain close contact with their local health departments and make every effort to share flu prevention information to families."

Symptoms of the new influenza virus are similar to those of regular or seasonal flu and include sudden fever and cough with muscle aches, fatigue, and lack of appetite. Many people with this infection also have runny nose, sore throat, and watery eyes, and some also have nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Individuals with the flu are contagious to others. It is important to take the following steps to prevent spreading the virus to others:Stay home when you are sick to avoid spreading illness to others;Cough or sneeze into the bend of your elbow or a tissue and properly dispose of used tissues;Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer;Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth;Stay healthy by eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of rest and exercise; andSeek care if you have influenza-like illness.

The Department of Health will continue to provide guidance to parents and the schools, including information on the development and availability of the Novel H1N1 flu vaccine, as the influenza season progresses.

For more information on Novel H1N1, contact the Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH or visit www.health.state.pa.us.

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

LONDON (AP) - Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases,

it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.

In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa.

So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year - about twice those afflicted in 2008.

The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines - that they were the Western world's plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. The sad polio reality fuels misguided fears and underscores the challenges authorities face using a flawed vaccine.

Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper, easier, and protects entire communities.

But it is made from a live polio virus - albeit weakened - which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances,

the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version that ignites new outbreaks.

The vaccine used in the United States and other Western nations is given in shots, which use a killed virus that cannot cause polio.

So when WHO officials discovered a polio outbreak in Nigeria was sparked by the polio vaccine itself, they assumed it would be easier to stop than a natural "wild" virus.

They were wrong.

In 2007, health experts reported that amid Nigeria's ongoing outbreak of wild polio viruses, 69 children had also been paralyzed in a new outbreak caused by the mutation of a vaccine's virus.

Back then, WHO said the vaccine-linked outbreak would be swiftly overcome - yet two years later, cases continue to mount.

They have since identified polio cases linked to the vaccine dating back as far as 2005.

It is a worrying development for officials who hope to end polio epidemics in India and Africa by the end of this year, after missing several earlier deadlines. "It's very disturbing," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, who heads the polio department at the World Health Organization.

This year, the number of polio cases caused by the vaccine has doubled: 124 children have so far been paralyzed, compared to 62 in 2008, out of about 42 million children vaccinated. For every case of paralysis, there are hundreds of other children who don't develop symptoms, but pass on the disease.

When Nigerian leaders suspended polio vaccination in 2003, believing the vaccine would sterilize their children and infect them with HIV, Nigeria exported polio to nearly two dozen countries worldwide, making it as far away as Indonesia.

Nigeria resumed vaccinations in 2004 after tests showed the vaccine was not contaminated with estrogen, anti-fertility agents or HIV.

Experts have long believed epidemics unleashed by a vaccine's mutated virus wouldn't last since the vaccine only contains a weakened virus strain - but that assumption is coming under pressure. Some experts now say that once viruses from vaccines start circulating they can become just as dangerous as wild viruses.

"The only difference is that this virus was originally in a vaccine vial," said Olen Kew, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The oral polio vaccine used in Nigeria and elsewhere contains a mild version of the live virus. Children who have been vaccinated pass the virus into the water supply through urine or feces. Other children who then play in or drink that water pick up the vaccine's virus, which gives them some protection against polio.

But in rare instances,

as the virus passes through unimmunized children, it can mutate into a strain dangerous enough to ignite new outbreaks,

particularly if immunization rates in the rest of the population are low.

Kew said

genetic analysis proves mutated viruses from the vaccine have caused at least...

seven separate outbreaks in Nigeria.

Though Nigeria's coverage rates have improved, up to 15 percent of children in the north still haven't been vaccinated against polio. To eradicate the disease, officials need to reach about 95 percent of the population.

Nigeria's vaccine-linked outbreak underlines the need to stop using the oral polio vaccine as soon as possible, since it can create the very epidemics it was designed to stop, experts say. WHO is researching other vaccines that might work better, but none is on the horizon.

Until a better vaccine is ready, WHO and U.S. CDC officials say the oral vaccine is the best available tool to eradicate polio and that when inoculation rates are nearly 100 percent it works fine.

"Nigeria is almost a case study in what happens when you don't follow the recommendations," Kew said.

Since WHO and partners began their attempt to rid the world of polio in 1988, officials have slashed the disease's incidence by more than 99 percent.

But numerous deadlines have been missed and the number of cases has been at a virtual standstill since 2000. Critics have also wondered whether it is time to give up, and donors may be sick of continuing to fund a program with no clear endgame.

"Eradication is a gamble," said Scott Barrett, an economist at Columbia University who has studied polio policies. "It's all or nothing ... and there is a very real risk this whole thing may fall apart."

Aside from Nigeria, polio persists in a handful of other countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Chad, Angola and Sudan.

Aylward agreed the Nigeria situation was another unwelcome hurdle, but was confident eradication was possible. "We still have a shot," he said. "We're throwing everything at it including the kitchen sink."

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

RICHMOND – It’s nearly back-to-school time and parents need to make sure their children are up to date on their immunizations.

This year, many questions are being asked about precautions for the H1N1 “swine flu” virus.

The Virginia Department of Health is expanding its call center to handle the questions.

The toll-free number, 1-877-275-8343, will be answered during state business hours for now and will be adjusted as needed, officials say.

You can also submit questions via email on the Va. Dept. of Health Website.

The novel H1N1 virus has differed significantly from the seasonal flu in its effect upon school children and young adults. This population has contracted the H1N1 virus in higher numbers than usually is seen with the seasonal flu.

Also Online

Va. Dept. of Health hotline:1-877-275-8343

Submit a question page

Learn about H1N1 "swine flu"

An important message for parents of school children as well as faculty and school staff is to stay home if they have novel H1N1 symptoms including fever, cough, sore throat or fatigue. A person with such influenza-like illness should stay home until they have been without a fever for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicine. Infected adults and children still can be contagious even after they begin to feel better.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

OTTAWA -- The federal government should appoint a national "health czar" with legal authority to impose directives on the provinces during the swine flu pandemic, according to the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

In an editorial appearing Monday, the journal calls for a "visible, independent" person who would have several responsibilities but most importantly, would have the power to enforce his or her recommendations.

With health-care delivery being a closely guarded responsibility of the provinces and territories, Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, is limited in what he can do and that makes for a flawed system, suggested Dr. Paul Hebert, editor-in-chief of the CMAJ, especially in a pandemic situation.

"In an emergency you need to say, ‘I'm sorry, here are the rules.'

That's not David Butler-Jones right now. I think he's doing a great job given the mandate that he currently has, but I think we need something different for this upcoming crisis, [How do they know?]" Dr. Hebert said in an interview.

Swine flu, known by its scientific name as the H1N1 virus, arrived in Canada in the spring and could turn into a more severe pandemic during the fall flu season.

Each province's health minister can impose rules on how to handle the outbreak, but Dr. Hebert said it's better to have consistency across the country when collaboration between jurisdictions is so crucial. Too much time could be spent wrangling over how provinces want to do things differently, he said.

"If there's any debate, it never stops. You can't do that in an emergency."

When the Public Health Agency of Canada was created and Dr. Butler-Jones was appointed to head it in 2004, the Canadian Medical Association suggested the federal government enact legislation to give him clear legal powers in a time of crisis, but the recommendation wasn't followed. Dr. Butler-Jones said at the time that his role would be to act as a national "facilitator" and to bring together the country's experts for advice on how to respond to another SARS or other infectious disease outbreak.

But Dr. Hebert maintains that's not the efficient way to deal with an emergency.

"You need someone who has the authority to say, ‘Listen, I'm sorry, I've considered all the advice, this is how we're doing it,'" said Dr. Hebert, a critical care doctor in Ottawa.

The editorial published in Monday's edition of the CMAJ describes the current swine flu pandemic as an enemy that should not be underestimated and says that immunization against the illness should a top priority.

Canada, however, has limited experience in conducting time-sensitive mass vaccination campaigns, the editorial notes, and even delivering routine flu vaccinations to vulnerable groups such as children and people in isolated communities has proven problematic.

"We need to act now to overcome these access and delivery problems," the editorial states.

The federal government has bought more than 50 million doses of a vaccine that is currently being developed for the swine flu [WTF? They bought 50 million doses of a vaccine that does not exist for a pandemic that also does not exist? Is this another derivitives fake bubble that is going to implode?], which first appeared as a new virus strain in Mexico and quickly spread around the world. The vaccine is expected to be ready for administration in November.

Dr. Hebert said the idea of vaccinating so many people so quickly is raising many questions about how the immunization program is actually going to be executed.

"We've never really conducted these large campaigns before. Hopefully it's all worked out," he said.

The CMAJ says ventilators and other machines are in limited supply and so are the people that know how to operate them and if the resources are overwhelmed, "major health-care institutions could grind to a halt."

Decisions will have to be made about who gets access to the limited resources, and how to secure the experienced health-care personnel and equipment if the pandemic worsens.

"Now is the time for leaders to communicate a sense of urgency in getting modified plans finalized based on recent experiences and rapid feedback from stakeholders,"the editorial states.

Logged

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

LONDON (AP) - Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases,

it's caused by the vaccine used to fight it.

In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa.

So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year - about twice those afflicted in 2008.

The polio problem is just the latest challenge to global health authorities trying to convince wary citizens that vaccines can save them from dreaded disease. For years, myths have abounded about vaccines - that they were the Western world's plan to sterilize Africans or give them AIDS. The sad polio reality fuels misguided fears and underscores the challenges authorities face using a flawed vaccine.

Nigeria and most other poor nations use an oral polio vaccine because it's cheaper, easier, and protects entire communities.

But it is made from a live polio virus - albeit weakened - which carries a small risk of causing polio for every million or so doses given. In even rarer instances,

the virus in the vaccine can mutate into a deadlier version that ignites new outbreaks.

The vaccine used in the United States and other Western nations is given in shots, which use a killed virus that cannot cause polio.

So when WHO officials discovered a polio outbreak in Nigeria was sparked by the polio vaccine itself, they assumed it would be easier to stop than a natural "wild" virus.

They were wrong.

In 2007, health experts reported that amid Nigeria's ongoing outbreak of wild polio viruses, 69 children had also been paralyzed in a new outbreak caused by the mutation of a vaccine's virus.

Back then, WHO said the vaccine-linked outbreak would be swiftly overcome - yet two years later, cases continue to mount.

They have since identified polio cases linked to the vaccine dating back as far as 2005.

It is a worrying development for officials who hope to end polio epidemics in India and Africa by the end of this year, after missing several earlier deadlines. "It's very disturbing," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, who heads the polio department at the World Health Organization.

This year, the number of polio cases caused by the vaccine has doubled: 124 children have so far been paralyzed, compared to 62 in 2008, out of about 42 million children vaccinated. For every case of paralysis, there are hundreds of other children who don't develop symptoms, but pass on the disease.

When Nigerian leaders suspended polio vaccination in 2003, believing the vaccine would sterilize their children and infect them with HIV, Nigeria exported polio to nearly two dozen countries worldwide, making it as far away as Indonesia.

Nigeria resumed vaccinations in 2004 after tests showed the vaccine was not contaminated with estrogen, anti-fertility agents or HIV.

Experts have long believed epidemics unleashed by a vaccine's mutated virus wouldn't last since the vaccine only contains a weakened virus strain - but that assumption is coming under pressure. Some experts now say that once viruses from vaccines start circulating they can become just as dangerous as wild viruses.

"The only difference is that this virus was originally in a vaccine vial," said Olen Kew, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The oral polio vaccine used in Nigeria and elsewhere contains a mild version of the live virus. Children who have been vaccinated pass the virus into the water supply through urine or feces. Other children who then play in or drink that water pick up the vaccine's virus, which gives them some protection against polio.

But in rare instances,

as the virus passes through unimmunized children, it can mutate into a strain dangerous enough to ignite new outbreaks,

particularly if immunization rates in the rest of the population are low.

Kew said

genetic analysis proves mutated viruses from the vaccine have caused at least...

seven separate outbreaks in Nigeria.

Though Nigeria's coverage rates have improved, up to 15 percent of children in the north still haven't been vaccinated against polio. To eradicate the disease, officials need to reach about 95 percent of the population.

Nigeria's vaccine-linked outbreak underlines the need to stop using the oral polio vaccine as soon as possible, since it can create the very epidemics it was designed to stop, experts say. WHO is researching other vaccines that might work better, but none is on the horizon.

Until a better vaccine is ready, WHO and U.S. CDC officials say the oral vaccine is the best available tool to eradicate polio and that when inoculation rates are nearly 100 percent it works fine.

"Nigeria is almost a case study in what happens when you don't follow the recommendations," Kew said.

Since WHO and partners began their attempt to rid the world of polio in 1988, officials have slashed the disease's incidence by more than 99 percent.

But numerous deadlines have been missed and the number of cases has been at a virtual standstill since 2000. Critics have also wondered whether it is time to give up, and donors may be sick of continuing to fund a program with no clear endgame.

"Eradication is a gamble," said Scott Barrett, an economist at Columbia University who has studied polio policies. "It's all or nothing ... and there is a very real risk this whole thing may fall apart."

Aside from Nigeria, polio persists in a handful of other countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Chad, Angola and Sudan.

Aylward agreed the Nigeria situation was another unwelcome hurdle, but was confident eradication was possible. "We still have a shot," he said. "We're throwing everything at it including the kitchen sink."

From p. 469, The River

When we got around to the controversial keynote speech he had made at the Fourth International Poliomyelitis Conference in Geneva in July 1957, just two months after his arrival at the Wistar, Koprowski gave a very frank response. "This speech," he told me, "was prompted by...the fact that everybody was asking, 'Have you tested the vaccine for this?' ; 'Have you removed this, removed that?' Now if that [had been] done at that time, we would delay the vaccination for ages. And my interest was to move on with the vaccination--polio was a plague throughout the world--and we should not be distracted by everybody putting his nose in." So I said, you were basically saying that the time has come to move against..."To move against and vaccinate," said Koprowski, completing the sentence. Quite without trying, he had recaptured the tone and urgency of the original speech, tuning back into the mood of four decades earlier.

...

[Speaking of the speech Koprowski gave at the Geneva conference].. he[Koprowski] said, "The advocates of safety do not want to pay any price for immunization ; yet exactly what are the costs one might have to pay for a method of immunization which would not only protect the vaccinated subject against the disease but also may lead to elimination of poliomyelitis....?"

He ended his Geneva address by calculating that the price was "negligible". Some might feel that, over the years that followed, SV40 and SIV were to prove otherwise.

(NaturalNews) Yesterday's story about the African Green Monkey virus harvesting and vaccine patents still has many people scratching their heads. It's really difficult to grasp the real story that's emerging here: That a key vaccine ingredient production method (involving infecting, then killing African Green Monkeys) was invented by a top researcher at the National Institutes of Health, and then the patent was assigned to a U.S. military contractor (DynCorp) that's already collecting billions of dollars running mercenary operations for the U.S. government. (See original story at http://www.naturalnews.com/026779_swine_flu_patents_vaccines.html )

Even for people who are knowledgeable about conspiracy theories, this report seems almost too much to believe. And yet, given all the reader feedback on this story, not one person has pointed out a factual error in the key findings of the report. The patent checks out, the inventor of the monkey vaccine process is real, the NIH is verifiably involved and DynCorp's involvement in all this is publicly verifiable through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

One of the most shocking realizations in all this is the fact that flu vaccines are made with ingredients extracted from diseased monkeys. For obvious reasons, this medical fact is not heavily advertised by the pharmaceutical industry. I'm not sure how many people would actually allow themselves to be injected with a vaccine if they knew it contained ingredients processed from diseased, incubated African monkeys who are killed so that their kidneys can be transformed into vaccine ingredients.

Dead monkey parts aren't present in all vaccines, of course, but a disturbingly large percentage of vaccines are made from ingredients extracted from diseased animals of one kind or another. (It's actually a very common practice in the vaccine industry.) Modern medicine goes to great lengths to avoid admitting what's actually in the vaccines. There's no requirement, for example, that vaccines list the origin of their ingredients. (Incubated monkey kidneys, rotten cow brains, thimerosal, yummm!)

Because of all the questions, this issue obviously needs to be disgust in more detail (ahem!).

Live teleconference to discuss the story in more detail

This Thursday evening at 6pm (Pacific) / 9pm (Eastern), I'll be joining Jonathan Landsman on a live, free teleconference to discuss this story in more detail. The call-in number is (US) 712-432-1001 and the access code is 443153357#

Call in at the time mentioned above to listen. The teleconference is sponsored by the NaturalNews Moxxor team, so we'll be talking about Moxxor for the second half hour, but the first half hour will focus primarily on the swine flu vaccine topic. (Last week's attempt at this phone conference had a technical glitch due to bandwidth outages in Ecuador. For this week, we have an improved plan that should go more smoothly... keep your fingers crossed!)

So that's at 6pm Pacific time, and it's a FREE teleconference, no registration required. Call in to listen as Jonathan Landsman and I cover this topic in more detail.-------------------

What does it all mean?

The evidence we're seeing with the swine flu vaccine ramp-up can be interpreted in many different ways. On one extreme, mainstream sheeple think the vaccine is perfectly safe, and they'll gladly line up to take the first shot. On the other extreme, some people are convinced the swine flu conspiracy is the beginning of the end for America: Police state vaccine mandates, military-enforced quarantines, FEMA camps and mass die-offs from the pandemic itself.

Based on the evidence I've seen, I honestly believe there's something devious afoot with the World Health Organization, the CDC, the NIH, Big Pharma and U.S. military contractors like DynCorp. But since I don't have any special access to secret documents or anything like that, I haven't seen any smoking gun evidence of a written plan to destroy America with a planned pandemic.

So your guess is as good as mine on all this (or maybe better, perhaps). But I'm not sitting around a major U.S. city waiting to see what happens (and neither should you). If I were still living in the USA, I would be thinking very seriously about getting out of the major urban areas and living in a more remote location. If the pandemic turns out to be a no-show, and the vaccine turns out to be harmless, such a move may appear somewhat ridiculous in hindsight. But if the pandemic begins to burn through the population, inevitably striking urban areas the hardest, those who got out of Dodge will look like geniuses (and those who didn't will look dead).

Deciding what to do in advance of all this is a very personal decision, of course. It all comes down to your level of faith in the federal government to save the American people (and your belief in the medical establishment). If you believe there are enough hospital beds to handle 30% of the population being sick, then don't sweat it. (But a quick inventory of hospital beds will tell you otherwise...)

If you think FEMA did a good job responding to Hurricane Katrina, then you'll be thrilled to know they will apply roughly the same quality of service in responding to a nationwide pandemic.

If you believe the vaccines are safe and protective, and that Big Pharma's drugs offer better protections than anti-viral herbs and good nutrition, then go ahead and get injected. I can't stop you from where I sit. Each person decides for themselves what to do in this case... and each person lives with the consequences.

Or dies, in some cases. People who make the wrong choice about placing their faith in Big Pharma or the U.S. government could pay for that mistake with their lives. On the other hand, people who guess wrong about being prepared will simply find themselves with extra stored food, extra herbs and perhaps some extra expense involved in moving out of the city and living in a more remote areas. And that's not a bad outcome even if you're wrong.--------------------

The big lie about vaccines

Western medicine constantly talks about reducing your risk of dying from heart disease, or cancer, or diabetes. But they never talk about reducing your risk of dying from vaccines.

That's curious. And you know why? Because it indicates how western medicine believes vaccines are 100% safe, posing no risk to anyone whatsoever.

And that's a foolish belief. From a scientific point of view, it's utterly ridiculous. Vaccines present a very real risk to health, and some people die within 48 hours after receiving certain vaccines. The 1976 swine flu vaccine, in particular, killed several thousand people and partially paralyzed thousands more. Yet, to this day, the medical industry claims there is "no proof" that the vaccine had anything to do with it.

Funny thing, isn't it, how drug companies can lie so easily? Funny thing, too, how only those people who got the vaccine shots soon found themselves paralyzed.

It's called cause and effect, and it's the same story with vaccines and autism. Drug companies deny any link between those two, claiming they have "no idea" why autism is on the rise, but they're certain it has nothing to do with the methyl mercury preservatives used in many vaccines. (And they have the fabricated clinical trial data to prove it!)

I've said it many times before, but it's worth repeating: Vaccines are the quackery of modern medicine. There's no proof that they work in any meaningful way to reduce deaths (they only "work" by producing antibodies, but that doesn't translate into saving lives), and there's lots of evidence that they're harmful. Yet, in classic zealot fashion, the vaccine industry ignores all the evidence of harm and invents all the imaginary evidence of supposed protective effects.

Virtually all doctors have been hoodwinked by the vaccine propaganda machine. In medical circles, questioning vaccines is tantamount to declaring the Earth is flat. That's ironic, because at one time, all doctors did believe the Earth was flat... and that infections were spontaneously created out of thin air. Even the idea that invisible "germs" existed and gave rise to infections was considered laughable, much like the idea today that the human immune system has its own anti-germ technology that's quite sufficient for protecting people against influenza (when properly nourished, of course).

The history of western medicine centers around a collection of highly arrogant, over-educated men reaching some of the silliest conclusions you can possibly imagine. Today's silly doctors insist that the entire population should be injected with viral materials harvested from infected monkeys (or other such sources). If it sounds too stupid to believe, that's because it is.

But it remains the status quo for medicine today. It will be obsolete soon, but for now, we all have to put up with the arrogance and idiocy of those who have been put in charge of the government response to a pandemic.

I'll talk more on this subject in Thursday's live phone conference. It's at 6pm (Pacific) / 9pm (Eastern). It's free and no registration is required. The call in number is (US) 712-432-1001 and the access code is 443153357#

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(NaturalNews) To most people, vaccines sound medically harmless. "They're good for you!" say the doctors and drug companies, but they never really talk about what's in those vaccines. There's a good reason for that: If people knew what was really in those vaccines, they would never allow themselves to be injected with them.

Aside from the dangerous ingredients many people already know about (like squalene or thimerosal), one of the key ingredients used in flu vaccines (including the vaccines being prepared for the swine flu pandemic) is the diseased flesh of African Green Monkeys. This is revealed in U.S. patent No. 5911998 - Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line. (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5...)

As this patent readily explains, ingredients used in the vaccine are derived from the kidneys of African Green Monkeys who are first infected with the virus, then allowed to fester the disease, and then are killed so that their diseased organs can be used make vaccine ingredients. This is done in a cruel, inhumane "flesh factory" environment where the monkeys are subjected to a process that includes "incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus." Then: "harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and... (ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus."

Aside from the outrageous cruelty taking place with all this ("incubating" the virus in the kidneys of living monkeys, for example), there's another disturbing fact that has surfaced in all this: The patent for this process is held not just by the National Institutes of Health, but by another private corporation known as DynCorp.

This, of course, brings up the obvious question: Who is Dyncorp? And why do they hold a patent on live attenuated vaccine production using African Green Monkeys?

What you probably didn't want to know about DyncorpDynCorp, it turns out, is a one of the top private military contractors working for the U.S. government. In addition to allegedly trafficking in under-age sex slaves in Bosnia (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.ph...) and poisoning rural farmers in Ecuador with its aerial spraying of Colombian coca crops (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.ph...), Dyncorp just happens to be paid big dollars by the U.S. government to patrol the U.S. / Mexico border, near where the H1N1 first swine flu virus was originally detected.

DynCorp also happens to be in a position to receive tremendous financial rewards from its patents covering attenuated live viral vaccine harvesting methods, as described in four key patents jointly held by DynCorp and the National Institutes of Health:

(6025182) Method for producing a virus from an African green monkey kidney cell line(6117667) Method for producing an adapted virus population from an African green monkey kidney cell line (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6...)(5911998) Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line(5646033) African green monkey kidney cell lines useful for maintaining viruses and for preparation of viral vaccines

Government collusion?One of the key inventors in these patents now held by DynCorp was Dr. Robert H. Purcell. Who is Dr. Robert Purcell? He's one of the co-chiefs of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases operating under the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. government. (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/labs/abou...)

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Thalidomide: A Nazi War Crimetrendsupdates.com/thalidomide-a-nazi-war-crime/Sunday, February 22, 2009, 22:51 By GSerrano

Thalidomide was marketed as a morning sickness medication for pregnant women. The women eventually gave birth to babies without arms and legs. More than 20,000 babies were born with deformities because of the drug. The German pharmaceutical Grünenthal claimed for years that the ‘damned’ drug was discovered by chance. They meant to formulate antihistamine, but ended up with a tranquilizer. Half a century after the tragedy, a dark possibility begins to take shape. Several documents reveal that the drug was actually discovered earlier by Hitler’s scientists and tested in Nazi concentration camps.

Argentinian researcher Carlos De Nápoli theorizes that thalidomide was originally created as an antidote for nerve gas, and that its creator was one Nazi scientist named Otto Ambrose who worked with Grünenthal after the war. De Napoli has documents proving that the guinea pigs used for the drug experimentation were no less than the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps. All this information is in De Napoli’s book entitled ‘Hitler’s Laboratories.’

Many strange things happened in those Nazi concentration camps. Stranger still is the fact that Hitler was the most famous proponent of Eugenics, a scientific experimentation movement that worked on the sterilization of ‘defectives’ for the purpose of racial supremacy and purity by way of redirecting the evolution process. With this latest evidence on thalidomide’s origins in Nazi concentration camps,

the puzzle pieces are starting to fit into a grand picture of Hitler’s Nazi movement as a huge scientific laboratory of evil, twisted, and psychotic minds.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Thalidomide: A Nazi War Crimetrendsupdates.com/thalidomide-a-nazi-war-crime/Sunday, February 22, 2009, 22:51 By GSerrano

Thalidomide was marketed as a morning sickness medication for pregnant women. The women eventually gave birth to babies without arms and legs. More than 20,000 babies were born with deformities because of the drug. The German pharmaceutical Grünenthal claimed for years that the ‘damned’ drug was discovered by chance. They meant to formulate antihistamine, but ended up with a tranquilizer. Half a century after the tragedy, a dark possibility begins to take shape. Several documents reveal that the drug was actually discovered earlier by Hitler’s scientists and tested in Nazi concentration camps.

Argentinian researcher Carlos De Nápoli theorizes that thalidomide was originally created as an antidote for nerve gas, and that its creator was one Nazi scientist named Otto Ambrose who worked with Grünenthal after the war. De Napoli has documents proving that the guinea pigs used for the drug experimentation were no less than the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps. All this information is in De Napoli’s book entitled ‘Hitler’s Laboratories.’

Many strange things happened in those Nazi concentration camps. Stranger still is the fact that Hitler was the most famous proponent of Eugenics, a scientific experimentation movement that worked on the sterilization of ‘defectives’ for the purpose of racial supremacy and purity by way of redirecting the evolution process. With this latest evidence on thalidomide’s origins in Nazi concentration camps,

the puzzle pieces are starting to fit into a grand picture of Hitler’s Nazi movement as a huge scientific laboratory of evil, twisted, and psychotic minds.

"Here was the medicine, the patients diedAnd no one asked: Who thrived?So have we with hellish electuariesIn these valleys, these mountains,Raged worse than any plague.I have myself given the poison to thousands.They withered, I must live to see The impudent murderers praised."

From Faust by Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe (1831)as recited by Widikund Lenz--the German physician who first linked thalidomide to birth defects--at the Kyoto International Conference against Drug-Induced Sufferings, April 1979

According to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, your children should be the first target for mass swine flu vaccinations when school starts this fall.

This is a ridiculous assumption for many reasons, not to mention extremely high risk.

In Australia, where the winter season has begun, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon is reassuring parents the swine flu is no more dangerous than regular seasonal flu. "Most people, including children, will experience very mild symptoms and recover without any medical intervention," she said.[ii]

Sydney-based immunization specialist Robert Booy predicts swine flu might be fatal to about twice as many children in the coming year as regular influenza. Booy estimates 10-12 children could die from the H1N1 virus, compared with the five or six regular flu deaths seen among children in an average year in Australia.[iii]

“Cure the Disease, Kill the Patient”

Less than 100 children in the U.S. die each year from seasonal flu viruses.[iv] If we use Australia’s math, a very rough estimate would be another 100 children could potentially die of swine flu in the United States in the coming year.

If children are the first target group in the U.S. per Sebelius, that means we’re about to inject around 75 million children with a fast tracked vaccine containing novel adjuvants, including dangerous squalene, to prevent perhaps 100 deaths.

I’m not overlooking the tragedy of the loss of even one child to an illness like the H1N1 flu virus. But there can be no argument that unnecessary mass injection of millions of children with a vaccine containing an adjuvant known to cause a host of debilitating autoimmune diseases is a reckless, dangerous plan.

Why are Vaccinations Dangerous?

The presumed intent of a vaccination is to help you build immunity to potentially harmful organisms that cause illness and disease. However, your body’s immune system is already designed to do this in response to organisms which invade your body naturally.

Most disease-causing organisms enter your body through the mucous membranes of your nose, mouth, pulmonary system or your digestive tract – not through an injection.

These mucous membranes have their own immune system, called the IgA immune system. It is a different system from the one activated when a vaccine is injected into your body.

Your IgA immune system is your body’s first line of defense. Its job is to fight off invading organisms at their entry points, reducing or even eliminating the need for activation of your body’s immune system.

When a virus is injected into your body in a vaccine, and especially when combined with an immune adjuvant like squalene, your IgA immune system is bypassed and your body’s immune system kicks into high gear in response to the vaccination.

The main ingredient in a vaccine is either killed viruses or live ones that have been attenuated (weakened and made less harmful).

Flu vaccines can also contain a number of chemical toxins, including ethylene glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde, phenol (carbolic acid) and even antibiotics like Neomycin and streptomycin.

In addition to the viruses and other additives, many vaccines also contain immune adjuvants like aluminum and squalene.

The purpose of an immune adjuvant added to a vaccine is to enhance (turbo charge) your immune response to the vaccination. Adjuvants cause your immune system to overreact to the introduction of the organism you’re being vaccinated against.

Adjuvants are supposed to get the job done faster (but certainly not more safely), which reduces the amount of vaccine required per dose, and the number of doses given per individual.

Less vaccine required per person means more individual doses available for mass vaccination campaigns. Coincidentally, this is exactly the goal of government and the pharmaceutical companies who stand to make millions from their vaccines.

Will There Be Immune Adjuvants in Swine Flu Vaccines?

The U.S. government has contracts with several drug companies to develop and produce swine flu vaccines. At least two of those companies, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, are using an adjuvant in their H1N1 vaccines.

The adjuvant? Squalene.

According to Meryl Nass, M.D., an authority on the anthrax vaccine,

“A novel feature of the two H1N1 vaccines being developed by companies Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline is the addition of squalene-containing adjuvants to boost immunogenicity and dramatically reduce the amount of viral antigen needed. This translates to much faster production of desired vaccine quantities.”[v]

Novartis’s proprietary squalene adjuvant for their H1N1 vaccine is MF59. Glaxo’s is ASO3. MF59 has yet to be approved by the FDA for use in any U.S. vaccine, despite its history of use in other countries.

Per Dr. Nass, there are only three vaccines in existence using an approved squalene adjuvant. None of the three are approved for use in the U.S.

What Squalene Does to Rats

Oil-based vaccination adjuvants like squalene have been proved to generate concentrated, unremitting immune responses over long periods of time.[vi]

A 2000 study published in the American Journal of Pathology demonstrated a single injection of the adjuvant squalene into rats triggered “chronic, immune-mediated joint-specific inflammation,” also known as rheumatoid arthritis.[vii]

The researchers concluded the study raised questions about the role of adjuvants in chronic inflammatory diseases.

What Squalene Does to Humans

Your immune system recognizes squalene as an oil molecule native to your body. It is found throughout your nervous system and brain. In fact, you can consume squalene in olive oil and not only will your immune system recognize it, you will also reap the benefits of its antioxidant properties.

The difference between “good” and “bad” squalene is the route by which it enters your body. Injection is an abnormal route of entry which incites your immune system to attack all the squalene in your body, not just the vaccine adjuvant.

Your immune system will attempt to destroy the molecule wherever it finds it, including in places where it occurs naturally, and where it is vital to the health of your nervous system.[viii]

The Department of Defense made every attempt to deny that squalene was indeed an added contaminant in the anthrax vaccine administered to Persian Gulf war military personnel – deployed and non-deployed – as well as participants in the more recent Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP).

However, the FDA discovered the presence of squalene in certain lots of AVIP product. A test was developed to detect anti-squalene antibodies in GWS patients, and a clear link was established between the contaminated product and all the GWS sufferers who had been injected with the vaccine containing squalene.

A study conducted at Tulane Medical School and published in the February 2000 issue of Experimental Molecular Pathology included these stunning statistics:

“ … the substantial majority (95%) of overtly ill deployed GWS patients had antibodies to squalene. All (100%) GWS patients immunized for service in Desert Shield/Desert Storm who did not deploy, but had the same signs and symptoms as those who did deploy, had antibodies to squalene.

In contrast, none (0%) of the deployed Persian Gulf veterans not showing signs and symptoms of GWS have antibodies to squalene. Neither patients with idiopathic autoimmune disease nor healthy controls had detectable serum antibodies to squalene. The majority of symptomatic GWS patients had serum antibodies to squalene.”

According to Dr. Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., a retired principle research scientist for the government of Australia:

“… this adjuvant [squalene] contributed to the cascade of reactions called "Gulf War Syndrome," documented in the soldiers involved in the Gulf War.

There is virtually no science to support the safety of vaccine injections on your long-term health or the health of your children. Follow-up studies last on average about two weeks, and look only for glaring injuries and illnesses.

Autoimmune disorders like those seen in Gulf War Syndrome frequently take years to diagnose due to the vagueness of early symptoms. Complaints like headaches, fatigue and chronic aches and pains are symptoms of many different illnesses and diseases.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for vaccine purveyors and proponents to look seriously at the long-term health consequences of their vaccination campaigns.

What You Can Do to Protect Yourself and Your Family

Visit the National Vaccination Information Center (NVIC) site and join in the fight against mandatory swine flu vaccinations.

Educate yourself about influenza strains, vaccination risks, and the public health laws in your state that may require you or your children to undergo either mandatory vaccination or quarantine.

Take care of your health to reduce or eliminate your risk of contracting the flu. The key is to keep your immune system strong by following these guidelines:

Frontline health and social care workers will be among the first to be vaccinated in October along with people with serious underlying health problems and pregnant women.

However a survey by Nursing Times has found many frontline nurses have reservations.

Only one in three said they are prepared to have the H1N1 vaccine with a third undecided and the rest saying no.

Almost 1,500 nurses were polled, of whom 91 per cent said they were frontline.

It comes after news that parents are also concerned about the vaccine, with worries predominantly about the safety of its contents, side effects, and the amount of testing that will be done.

Of the nurses who said they would not get vaccinated, 60 per cent said concern about the safety of the vaccine was the main reason.

A further 31 per cent said they did not consider the risks to their health from swine flu to be great enough, while nine per cent thought they would not be able to take time out of work to get immunised.

"I would not be willing to put myself at risk of, as yet, unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution," said one respondent.

A further respondent said: "I have yet to be convinced there is a genuine health risk (from swine flu) and it’s not just government propaganda."

Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, told Nursing Times it was unfortunate that nurses could ‘knowingly leave themselves at risk’.

He said: "They have a duty to themselves, they are at risk. They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families. I think you solve those responsibilities by being vaccinated."

With regards to safety concerns about the vaccines, he added: "The evidence that we’ve had is sufficient to persuade the regulators that these are vaccines that will be licensed."

Over two million frontline health and social care staff will be offered the vaccine in order to stop staff falling ill and being off work ill and also to prevent them from passing on the H1N1 vaccine or catching it from patients they will be treating.

Christine Beasley, the Government's Chief Nursing Officer, said: "Frontline nurses will be absolutely crucial in the height of a pandemic - without them, patient care will suffer, and the NHS will be stretched.

"Getting the swine flu vaccine will protect nurses and their patients. That's why we're offering frontline nurses the vaccine as a top priority. As well as protecting them, it will reduce the transmission of the virus to vulnerable patients.

"Of course, vaccination will be optional, but the vaccine is being carefully assessed for safety and will be licensed before it is used. "

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

One in three nurses say they will not be immunised against swine flu, despite being offered the vaccine as a priority to protect patients.

Concerns about the vaccine’s safety and a perception that the infection is mild are among reasons that NHS staff gave for refusing to have the jab, a survey of nearly 1,500 staff found.

Frontline health and social care workers will be offered the jab from October, along with patients in at-risk groups — such as those with diabetes, asthma or pregnant women.

In the online survey for Nursing Times magazine, 30 per cent of nurses said that they would not get immunised when the vaccine for H1N1 became available; 37 per cent said they would. Thirty-three per cent were undecided.

Of those who said that they would not be vaccinated, 60 per cent cited concern about the safety of the vaccine as the main reason.

Thirty-one per cent said they did not consider the risks to their health from swine flu to be great enough, and 9 per cent did not think they would be able to take time out of work to visit their GP to be immunised.

Two possible vaccines are being tested in trials run by the University of Leicester and the Health Protection Agency to assess immunity levels and identify side-effects.

A decision on licensing is expected at the end of September, with nearly 55 million doses expected to be delivered to Britain by the end of the year.

David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, said it was unfortunate that nurses could “knowingly leave themselves at risk” of contracting the illness.

“They have a duty to themselves, they are at risk. They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families. I think you solve those responsibilities by being vaccinated,” he said.

He added: “The evidence that we’ve had is sufficient to persuade the regulators that these are vaccines that will be licensed.”

Professor Salisbury’s comments follow a warning from Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, that swine flu could leave up to 12 per cent of the NHS workforce on sick leave at any one time.

Low vaccination rates among NHS staff have previously been blamed for causing disruption to services and illness among patients during typical winter flu seasons.

Transmission by staff of contagious viruses was blamed for some hospital outbreaks of flu last winter, when fewer than one in seven NHS staff received the annual flu vaccine, while shortages of workers also put pressure on accident and emergency departments.

Reported cases of swine flu this summer have already surpassed the levels typically seen during a winter flu season, and the figures are expected to surge in the coming months.

George Kassianos, the immunisation spokesman for the Royal College of GPs, said: “More than any other year, this year it is extremely improtant that people get vaccinated against flu. It is very important that nurses, doctors and healthcare workers do not get influenza themselves and have to go off sick, and also that we do not give it to our patients.

“We are lucky that we will have enough doses of this vaccine in Britain, and we as health professionals need to put it in our own arms first to better protect our patients.”

Dr Kassianos added that it was understandable that people were unsure about having a new vaccine, “but its ingredients and the way it's being manufactured are almost exactly the same as the annual flu vaccine. I see no reason why this vaccine should be any different to the flu vaccines of the past. People’s confidence should rise as the programme gets under way.”

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(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A new concern has surfaced about the safety of the potential H1N1 vaccine, particularly a link to a deadly nerve disease.

In London, the Health Protection Agency sent a letter to senior government staff with a warning. Vaccines for swine flu back in 1976 were linked to GBS, or Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a nerve disorder. 26 people died.

Health Officials in the US say the risk of GBS is very low, one in every million vaccinations, and the new vaccine, which is now in clinical trials, may not even be based off the older vaccine.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a swine flu pandemic,[1] NanoPass Technologies Ltd. (NanoPass) announced today that it has successfully developed a microneedle-based injection device that could dramatically enhance both the effectiveness and supply of pandemic flu vaccines.

"As declared by WHO on June 11th, 2009", said Dr Yotam Levin, the Company's CEO, "the novel A H1N1 influenza has become a phase 6 global pandemic. There is an imminent need of developing countries, as well as that of many developed countries, for an adequate supply of pandemic flu vaccines. Since global capacity is limited and production yield is reported to be low, novel approaches for vaccine enhancement are of great need." Dr Ofer Sharon, the Company's Medical Director added, "NanoPass has proven in a randomized clinical trial, recently published in Vaccine,[2] that it can reduce the dose of a seasonal flu vaccine by 80% while preserving its efficacy. This effect is thought to be achieved by targeting the potent specialized immune cells that reside in the skin. This means that health authorities can use the same amount of vaccine they have sourced, to vaccinate at least double, if not triple, the number of subjects, with the same vaccine purchase." NanoPass is designing clinical studies to demonstrate this significant effect for swine H1N1.

The major global public threat posed by the new H1N1 flu strain demands close coordination among vaccine manufacturers, governments, technology developers and global health authorities to manage the supply of vaccines and to ensure there are enough doses for everyone.

About NanoPass's MicronJet Device

MicronJet is a microneedle-based device for intradermal delivery of vaccines. The device allows for consistent, reliable, and simple delivery of the vaccine directly into the skin. It has been shown in multiple clinical trials,[3,4] that injecting a seasonal influenza vaccine directly into the skin harnesses this very potent immune organ, and allows for both the reduction of the dose required for the same immune response ("dose sparing"), as well as the ability to actually potentiate this response, with the use of equivalent doses ("increased immunogenicity").[5]

This approach is being tested for a variety of major diseases that do not yet have an effective vaccine, such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis.

NanoPass, founded by Dr Shuki Yeshurun, is an Israeli-based private company developing an innovative delivery device for the enhancement of vaccines and other large molecules. The Company has proven efficacy and safety in multiple applications including seasonal flu, insulin delivery and lidocaine for local anesthesia. MicronJet is approved for marketing in the EU (please see http://www.nanopass.com for more information), and is about to be registered in additional markets. The MicronJet is approved for use by health care professionals for intradermal delivery of drugs and medicinal products that are approved for intradermal delivery.

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Two elderly Israelis died of complications from swine flu yesterday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the H1N1 virus to nine. The deaths came just before the publication of a Health Ministry survey reporting that 25 percent of Israelis will not get inoculated for the virus even if doctors develop a vaccine. Only 25 percent would go to hospital upon displaying symptoms, according to the survey. The two fatalities were aged 76 and 67. Both died at Petah Tikva's Rabin Medical Center. Twelve other flu patients are in intensive care units around the country.

The two were not given autopsies, as per their families' requests. One was diagnosed prior to his death as a definite case, but the other victim remains as only a possible case without an autopsy to confirm whether swine flu was a factor in the death. The Health Ministry stated that although swine flu cannot be directly blamed for the two deaths, they will be considered victims of the pandemic. According to the Health Ministry survey, conducted by the government publications board on 500 adults, 65 percent of Israelis regard swine flu as a serious disease. Fifty-eight percent said they were concerned about its spread, and 54 percent said they were worried they might contract it.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they would stay home if they felt sick, and 78 percent said they would wash their hands with soap and sneeze into a tissue rather than their hands. These tendencies correspond with written material circulated by the Health Ministry to educate the public on how to prevent spreading the infection. Respondents also said they largely preferred names other than swine flu to describe the virus, with 54 percent preferring the name "world flu." Only 28 percent said they would rather hear the disease referred to as swine flu. The name favored by Deputy Health Minister Ya'akov Litzman, Mexican flu, did not receive a high rating. A Health Ministry report released last week showed the number of people who have caught the disease rose 3.6 percent in August. The ministry has recorded at least 2,150 verified cases of swine flu in Israel, half of them patients under the age of 30. The disease is spreading fastest in Haifa, the north and Jerusalem, though the largest number of people suffering from the flu has been recorded in the central region.

A study conducted by the Health Ministry's department of epidemiology, based on 1,503 swine flu patients, showed that only 5 percent of those diagnosed were over the age of 50. This figure bucks the trend of normal seasonal flus, in which the disease is more widespread among older citizens. The study also showed that swine flu is slightly more widespread among men than women, consistent with most infectious diseases. In the first three weeks of July, patients whose symptoms could indicate swine flu were tested for the disease only if they were considered high-risk, including those suffering from chronic diseases, pregnant women and hospitalized patients, while for the last two weeks, only people admitted with acute respiratory conditions or people living near a known outbreak have been tested.

Therefore, the ministry's figures for the rise in the number of swine flu patients are estimates, based on the number of people whose symptoms seem likely to be caused by the disease. By the end of last week, these estimates found, the number of people contracting swine flu each week had risen to 1,346 - a 4 percent increase compared to two weeks earlier.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

As the summer of 2009 winds down, the debate over "pandemic" vaccinations in the nation's "public" schools is beginning to ramp up.

According to the Associated Press, hundreds of public schools are "heeding the government's call to set up flu clinics in the fall, preparing for what could be the most WIDESPREAD SCHOOL VACCINATIONS since the days of polio."

Yet, despite all of the "hype" and fear-mongering, a few very important questions remain unanswered, and concerned citizens are still being left in the dark. Some basic questions should be very simple ones for Washington to answer. Who is paying for these millions of experimental vaccines? Is this yet another government "bailout program" ­ this time to enrich Big Pharma?

The single biggest question that this writer personally asked of HHS Secretary Sebelius two months ago in an "open letter" is simply: "WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS OF THE VACCINES?" Can Americans be 100% guaranteed that toxic squalene (an oil-in-water adjuvant) and live viruses will not be part of the ingredient list, since on July 13, the World Health Organization approved these substances to be included in the vaccines?

Again, I would ask Ms. Sebelius: "Please give us an INDEPENDENT analysis of the contents of the various 'vaccines' before asking us to roll up our sleeves and take the shots ­ ESPECIALLY our precious children." All we are asking for, Secretary Sebelius, is INFORMED CONSENT; instead, you consistently appear to be demanding blind, robotic TRUST as you IGNORE these basic questions.

Typically, when someone is afraid to give full and honest disclosure, it is because they have something to hide. What is the government hiding?

I would respectfully remind Secretary Sebelius that her own FDA, as well as the FTC, is the watchdog over consumer products and their safety. Various Truth in Labeling laws provide for the COMPLETE and ACCURATE listing of product ingredients on the labels. Thanks to these laws, this author can receive full disclosure of the chemicals and preservatives in a bag of Cheetos, and thus, I can make an informed decision to purchase and consume the product ­ or abstain from the same as the case may be. Nobody is FORCING ME, to buy and eat a bag of Cheetos. Yet, the CDC and the federal government's "health and human services" division do not seem inclined to apply these same basic consumer-protection laws to the pandemic flu vaccines. Again one must ask, "Why is this??"

Furthermore, if my bag of Cheetos happens to have some toxic mold growing in the product, which makes me deadly ill --- I have the basic right to sue the company for damages. Not so with these vaccines. Not only do we the people not know what specific chemicals and viruses are being shot directly into our bloodstreams, but again according to an Associated Press article, the vaccine companies have been given blanket immunity from lawsuits. This of course leads us to ask yet another question, "If the vaccines are so safe, why does Big Pharma need such sweeping lawsuit protections in place?"

THE EMEA PROVIDES DISCLOSURE

Over the weekend, a gentleman in Belgium sent a very interesting e-mail. He had finally succeeded in getting a document from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA -the European Union's equivalent of America's FDA) that listed the basic ingredients in the primary "pandemic flu" vaccine being purchased for Europe ­ GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) PANDEMRIX vaccine. This EMEA Document is very, very revealing. The vaccine consists of:

Clearly, this is BIRD FLU vaccine, with the isolated antigen being the VietNam killer bird flu virus that has exhibited such a high mortality rate amongst victims in that country. The problem is, according to the WHO, the pandemic flu threatening Europe and the world is not a BIRD FLU (H5N1) virus at all, but is a "Novel" Swine Flu (H1N1) virus. How is it possible that such a specific BIRD FLU VACCINE would give any immune protection to a "Novel" Swine Flu "pandemic" virus?

It would seem that GSK is trying to unload stockpiles of its "Avian Pandemic Flu" vaccine by disguising it as a generic "Pandemic" vaccine under the name "PANDEMRIX"!! Why is the EMEA allowing this to happen? Will the FDA follow the EMEA's lead and allow "Pandemrix" bird flu viruses to be shot into millions of school children in America? Or will it be only Novartis or Novavax vaccines allowed in America? When will Americans be given FULL DISCLOSURE OF THE LABELING, and the COMPANIES UNDER CONTRACT??

Notice also that GSK's "Pandemrix" circular declares that the virus included in the vaccine has been "adjuvanted" ­ but it doesn't disclose the specific adjuvant used. It is very likely "oil-in-water" adjuvant, aka squalene ­ but this is not fully disclosed.

A very real concern of virologists worldwide is that the relatively benign "Novel" Swine Pandemic Flu threatening the world today, could turn into a much more dangerous killer if it somehow were able to blend with a known high-morbidity-producing virus, such as the VietNam strain of H5N1. It would appear that injecting millions of people with PANDREMIX "adjuvanted" H5N1 Bird Flu viruses could indeed create the 'Perfect Storm' as far as a pandemic is concerned.

The swine flu vaccine was a hot topic at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department’s monthly board meeting tonight at the Community Health Facility, 200 Maine.

Director Dan Partridge gave board members an update on the department’s efforts. Its main goal is to vaccinate people who are most at-risk of getting swine flu. Those include:

• Children, ages 6 months to 24 years old.

• Pregnant women.

• Household contacts or caregivers of children who are younger than 6 months.

• Health care workers.

• Adults, ages 25-64, with chronic health conditions.

Partridge said that letters were sent Monday to health care providers, asking if they would be interested in helping administer the vaccines. If so, they are to register with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

The health department also has been meeting regularly with four segments of the population: schools, universities, businesses and government agencies. They have been identifying possible days and locations to offer the vaccine.

The department is strongly encouraging isolation of those who come down with the illness. Partridge said it is important to stay home when sick.

Partridge said there will be an ample supply of the vaccine. Kansas is expected to get a shipment in mid-October of 1.2 million doses and that will be distributed by population.

He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is predicting between 20 percent and 40 percent of the population will get swine flu during the next 18 months. If 40 percent of the population were affected in Douglas County, that would be 45,600 people. He called that a “staggering” number.

Board members — Dr. Gerald Pees and Dr. Alan Cowles — voiced a few concerns during the meeting. Pees said that he is concerned swine flu is going to “flare” after smoldering this summer.

Cowles said he has talked to neighbors who are worried about getting the vaccine. They think it has been produced too fast and may not be safe. He said “it’s easier to be scared of needles than enthusiastic about them.”

Despite advice from some health agencies to get the seasonal flu vaccine before the swine flu vaccine comes out in October, the doctors were against it. That’s because the vaccine, they said, usually lasts just four months and would make people vulnerable at the height of the flu season.

Everyone in the room agreed — board members and department employees — that it’s going to be a challenging experience because the disease is unpredictable and so are people’s reactions.

Stay tuned. The department will release information as it becomes available.

•••

In other news, Partridge reported that U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., recently visited the health department. He said they both seemed “genuinely interested” in the department. He said they were interested in how to control and reduce health costs while providing quality care.

His answer — as it has been in past stories — is to start with prevention. It’s about promoting healthy lifestyles through exercise and eating nutritious foods.

Of course, Partridge said, there isn’t a simple answer when it comes to health reform. Cowles said it wouldn’t be easy to be in their shoes.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

More on the UK Nurses representative body saying already 1/3 will not take the shot. Note the government stooge Professor David Salisbury using strong words like they 'have a duty' to take the shot...---------------------------------------------------------

A poll has found that almost one in three nurses do not want the swine flu jab over fears about its safety and a perception that the flu is mild.The poll of almost 1,500 readers of the Nursing Times found that many would reject the vaccine.The jab is to be given to people in high-risk groups, such as those with asthma or diabetes, as well as health workers like GPs and nurses.Some 91% of those who responded to the survey described themselves as frontline nurses. When asked if they would have the vaccine, 30% of those surveyed said 'no', while 37% said 'yes' and 33% said 'maybe'.Of those who said they would refuse the jab, 60% said their main reason was concern about the safety of the vaccine.A further 31% said they did not consider the risks to their health from swine flu to be great enough, while 9% thought they would not be able to take time off work to get immunised.One nurse said: "I would not be willing to put myself at risk of, as yet, unknown long-term effects to facilitate a short-term solution."Another who had not made up their mind whether to have the jab, said: "I have had the seasonal flu vaccination three times and on each occasion was very poorly for several days afterwards. It can give you flu-like symptoms, which in my case were bad enough to put me in my bed."Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health's director of immunisation said: "They have a duty to themselves, they are at risk. They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families."The survey comes after health chiefs said doctors should watch out for cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome when the vaccine is introduced in October. The syndrome, which affects around 1,500 people a year in the UK, attacks the nervous system and can result in temporary paralysis

All the vaccine buzz is about the H1N1 virus right now, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reminding Americans to make sure all of their vaccinations are up-to-date. The CDC encourages adults to guard against vaccine-preventable diseases such as shingles, human papillomavirus (HPV), tetanus, meningitis, whooping cough and pneumococcal disease.This Story

* Speaking of Vaccinations . . . * When to Get Which Shots

If getting those shots hadn't occurred to you, you're not alone. A survey released last month by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) found that about three-quarters of American adults were extremely or very familiar with only two vaccine-preventable diseases: influenza and chickenpox. (See chart for the recommended vaccination schedule.)

Young adults, defined as ages 18 to 26 for the survey, tend to be especially complacent about vaccination. "This is not that surprising, because they have been well-protected against these diseases and have little or no experience with the manifestations," says Susan J. Rehm, the medical director of NFID.(Oh, so we're not well-informed, well-educated citizens, then? We're just retarded, ignorant children who need to be taught to take our loving vaccines!)

For example, less than half of the young adults surveyed knew that tetanus causes lockjaw and that one should be vaccinated against tetanus every 10 years; 84 percent of adults 50 and older knew this.(Appealing to the old people, who want to be told that they're wise, even if they're as dumb as a pile of rocks)

Shingles, which is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox and results in a painful, sometimes debilitating rash, strikes fear into people who have seen its effects firsthand, but that hasn't translated into mass vaccination: Only 7 percent of Americans who are supposed to receive the shot -- people age 60 or older -- have done so. The shingles vaccine has only been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2006. The vaccination costs $200 to $500, depending on how much a doctor charges for buying and handling the delicate medicine, which must remain frozen until shortly before it is injected."In my adult practice, if you say the word 'shingles' in that visit, you can tell immediately if that patient has had direct contact with somebody who has had shingles," says Robert H. Hopkins, an Arkansas doctor who is involved in local and national efforts to improve immunization rates. "If they've had direct contact with somebody who's had shingles in their family, in their neighborhood, in church, most of them will say, 'I don't care what it costs, I want to prevent it.' "

At a July 22 NFID news conference, Hopkins and other doctors tried mightily to stay focused on their message of encouraging adults to get vaccinated, but they kept bumping into health-care-reform issues: Discussion of the pricey shingles vaccine brought up questions about Medicare and prescription drug costs. The role of primary care doctors in educating patients about appropriate vaccines led to discussion of the shortage of general practitioners; reasons for that shortage include a medical system that rewards specialized services over prevention.

Vaccination is a perfect example of good preventive, evidence-based medicine, said CDC physician Anne Schuchat: "There's a need for culture change in America, where we worry about things when they're really bad rather than taking care of prevention and wellness." (What does that even mean?)

The nationwide revolt against government plans to implement a mass swine flu vaccination program in the United Kingdom has picked up steam, with a poll revealing that a third of NHS nurses will refuse to take the shot.

Despite nurses and frontline health workers being the primary target group to take the vaccine, just 37 per cent of them said they would take the swine flu vaccine in a survey conducted by Nursing Times magazine. 30 per cent said they would not be immunized and 33 per cent said they were unsure.

Of the 30 per cent who said they would refuse to be vaccinated, 60 per cent said the reason was due to fears about the safety of the vaccine, following revelations that the shots will contain mercury and squalene and have also been linked with the killer nerve disease Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Another 31 per cent said they would refuse the vaccine because they did not consider the risk from swine flu to be great enough.

The government responded to the poll by claiming that nurses have a duty not to infect their patients and urged them to take the vaccine, but it seems that many fear the health consequences of taking the vaccine will be worse than catching the virus itself.

Interestingly, a London Times article on the story reveals that fewer than one in seven nurses in the UK receives the annual flu shot, highlighting the fact that health workers, who would be in a position to be well educated on the issue, are already fully aware of the dangers associated with vaccines in general.

The swine flu vaccine is being rushed through safety procedures while the government has provided pharmaceutical companies with blanket immunity from lawsuits arriving out of the vaccine causing deaths and injuries.

It was previously revealed that some batches of the vaccine will contain mercury, a toxin linked with autism and neurological disorders. The vaccine will also contain the dangerous ingredient squalene, which has been directly linked with cases of Gulf War Syndrome and a host of other debilitating diseases.

It was also recently reported that the UK government sent a confidential letter to senior neurologists telling them to be on the alert for cases of a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.

Following the leak of the letter a senior neurologist told the Daily Mail, “I would not have the swineflu jab because of the GBS risk.”

The last attempt to mass vaccinate the public against swine flu, during the 1976 outbreak in the United States, killed more people than the virus itself.

The vast majority of respondents to the London Times article about the nurses’ refusal to take the shot commented that they too would refuse to take the vaccine, mirroring sentiment across the country.

At this stage only a deadlier return of the virus backed by a massive government fearmongering campaign is going to make anything like a majority of the population take the swine flu shot.

Since the majority of the population will refuse to take the vaccine, the government’s only option will be to institute a mandatory program backed by force, or to drop plans for mass vaccination altogether.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Awesome work these days Mr. Watson.Sane i see your crazy style "Sanese" popping up on the main sites, Whoot! Whoot!

really?

I am waiting for Colbert to use "sanese" in "The W0RD" segment.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

To be fair, the insanity of the NWO has most likely been more influential than my "sanese" but thanks for the compliment.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Interestingly, a London Times article on the story reveals that fewer than one in seven nurses in the UK receives the annual flu shot, highlighting the fact that health workers, who would be in a position to be well educated on the issue, are already fully aware of the dangers associated with vaccines in general

It's actually about 1 in 3. That number could go up substantially though given the high number ( 37%) of nurses undecided.

- -One in three nurses does not want swine flu vaccine

One in three nurses say they will not be immunised against swine flu, despite being offered the vaccine as a priority to protect patients.

Concerns about the vaccine’s safety and a perception that the infection is mild are among reasons that NHS staff gave for refusing to have the jab, a survey of nearly 1,500 staff found.

Frontline health and social care workers will be offered the jab from October, along with patients in at-risk groups — such as those with diabetes, asthma or pregnant women.

In the online survey for Nursing Times magazine, 30 per cent of nurses said that they would not get immunised when the vaccine for H1N1 became available; 37 per cent said they would. Thirty-three per cent were undecided.

Of those who said that they would not be vaccinated, 60 per cent cited concern about the safety of the vaccine as the main reason.

Thirty-one per cent said they did not consider the risks to their health from swine flu to be great enough, and 9 per cent did not think they would be able to take time out of work to visit their GP to be immunised.

Two possible vaccines are being tested in trials run by the University of Leicester and the Health Protection Agency to assess immunity levels and identify side-effects.

A decision on licensing is expected at the end of September, with nearly 55 million doses expected to be delivered to Britain by the end of the year.

David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, said it was unfortunate that nurses could “knowingly leave themselves at risk” of contracting the illness.

“They have a duty to themselves, they are at risk. They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families. I think you solve those responsibilities by being vaccinated,” he said.

He added: “The evidence that we’ve had is sufficient to persuade the regulators that these are vaccines that will be licensed.”

Professor Salisbury’s comments follow a warning from Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer for England, that swine flu could leave up to 12 per cent of the NHS workforce on sick leave at any one time.

Low vaccination rates among NHS staff have previously been blamed for causing disruption to services and illness among patients during typical winter flu seasons.

Transmission by staff of contagious viruses was blamed for some hospital outbreaks of flu last winter, when fewer than one in seven NHS staff received the annual flu vaccine, while shortages of workers also put pressure on accident and emergency departments.

Reported cases of swine flu this summer have already surpassed the levels typically seen during a winter flu season, and the figures are expected to surge in the coming months.

George Kassianos, the immunisation spokesman for the Royal College of GPs, said: “More than any other year, this year it is extremely improtant that people get vaccinated against flu. It is very important that nurses, doctors and healthcare workers do not get influenza themselves and have to go off sick, and also that we do not give it to our patients.

“We are lucky that we will have enough doses of this vaccine in Britain, and we as health professionals need to put it in our own arms first to better protect our patients.”

Dr Kassianos added that it was understandable that people were unsure about having a new vaccine, “but its ingredients and the way it's being manufactured are almost exactly the same as the annual flu vaccine. I see no reason why this vaccine should be any different to the flu vaccines of the past. People’s confidence should rise as the programme gets under way.”

TUESDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- The theory that a relatively mild outbreak of a new flu virus in the spring predicts a more severe, deadly outbreak in the fall isn't borne out by a look back at prior epidemics, two U.S. experts say.

"Pandemic history suggests that changes neither in transmissibility nor in pathogenicity are inevitable," concluded Drs. David Morens and Jeffery Taubenberger, infectious disease experts at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

In an article published in the Aug. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the experts take on a much-publicized theory that's helped stoke fears about a resurgence of swine flu in the Northern Hemisphere this fall.

The so-called "herald wave" theory stems from the belief that the deadly 1918-19 flu pandemic began with a milder spring wave of illness, which got more deadly as the virus spread throughout the summer, picking up lethal mutations. The 1918-19 "Spanish Flu" is estimated to have killed between 20 million and 40 million people worldwide.

However, while flu outbreaks were noted in Europe in the spring of 1918, no viruses from these outbreaks "have yet been identified," Morens and Taubenberger noted. And the actual course of the 1918 pandemic flu varied greatly around the world -- most areas experienced no "spring wave" at all, and the timing of successive waves changed between regions and even between countries, the researchers said.

The two experts also broadened their review to look at 14 major flu epidemics that have swept the globe since the beginning of the 16th century.

"In doing so, it is difficult to find evidence of 1918-like waves herald waves, or other such phenomena," they noted. The most recent flu pandemics, occurring in 1957 and 1968, "generally exhibited no more than one (mostly seasonal) recurrence" before settling down into relatively innocuous seasonal flu, they said.

One infectious-disease expert called the new analysis "absolutely correct."

Looking back at 20th century flu pandemics, "secondary waves have pretty much been either the same or even of less epidemiologic significance than the first wave," said Dr. Pascal James Imperato, dean of the school of public health at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York City.

And as for the current H1N1 swine flu pandemic, the NIAID experts believe that the relatively poor transmissibility of the virus, the fact that many people have some pre-existing immunity, and its arrival in the Northern Hemisphere in late spring "all give reason to hope for a more indolent pandemic course and fewer deaths than in many past pandemics."

Imperato concurred with that assessment. Swine flu is "still circulating," he said, "and that means that a lot of people have developed protection against it, plus we have the advantage that it's a descendant of other H1N1 viruses that were in circulation in the late '70s through the '80s, so older people have solid protection."

"It's hard to conceive that if the H1N1 should reappear in the fall in the Northern Hemisphere that we would have a more severe epidemic," he said.

This should come as good news as the United States gears up for the coming fall flu season. This week, volunteers began lining up at centers nationwide as the first swine flu vaccine trials began.

"The best way to prevent the spread of the flu is vaccination," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on Friday, "and our scientists are working hard to have a vaccine ready for consumption by mid-October."

Over 120 million doses are expected to be delivered, with priority going to health-care workers, pregnant women and people with underlying health conditions, federal officials have said.

Those efforts should be supported, Imperato said, even if the fall flu season turns out to be relatively benign.

"I think it's prudent to do what is being done now. You prepare for the worst but hope for the best," he said.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

This is the first school year that the HPV vaccine is required by state law for girls. It's a vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer. Female students are mandated to have their first of three doses before entering the 6th grade.

Parents do have a choice. They can opt out of the vaccine for their child.

12 year old Haille won't be getting the vaccine anytime soon.

"I still feel like there's not enough information and it hasn't been around long enough," said Debra Urquhart, Haille's mom.

Gardasil was approved in June of 2006 for females between the ages of 9 and 26 as way to protect them from four subtypes of human papillomavirus infection, the most common causes of cervical cancer and genital warts.

"We didn't have a lot of data on it yet, that's why everyone is excited about this study," said Dr. Patton Saul with Lewis-Gale Regional Cancer Center.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at adverse medical events from more than 23 Million doses given out.

Of those doses, more 12-thousand reports were filed about health problems after the vaccine.

Fainting was the most common problem.

But there were also 772 serious medical events, including 32 deaths.

"Then the deaths, yeah, that's very scary. And that makes me even happier I've decided to wait," said Urquhart.

Other medical events reported, included dizziness, nausea, headache and a reaction at the injection site.

Dr. Saul says despite the study he still recommends the vaccine because every year 11-thousand women become infected with HPV and 4-thousand die from cervical cancer.

He also pointed out that the vaccine offers about 90 percent or more protection against the strains that cause cervical cancer.

"I think we have to continue to watch it. Six percent adverse effects I don't think is really that high for the 23 million doses that were given," said Dr. Saul.

But with vaccine given to young girls a major question still remains.

"We don't know how long the vaccine will last, we don't know if you need a booster shot," said Dr. Saul.

With 80 percent of women expected to have HPV by the time the reach 50, it can be a tough choice for parents

"I think part of it it's just not necessary for our family at this time, maybe three years from now I may change my opinion on that," said Charlotte Hoch, the mother of two teenage girls.

While parents can opt out of the vaccine, the state mandate means girls in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades can get it for free.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

I love Sanese. I plaguerize it for my youtube videos shamelessly, but Sane doesn't care, does he?

use everything/anything I have ever posted however you see fit. don't mention where you got it, use it out of context if it helps, change the wording if it helps. just get information out there. also double check my stuff (especially opinions) I am wrong often and although I try and correct myself when other members point this out, double checking is important especially if you wish to actually argue a point. and i steal crap all the time (i try to cite sources/links though)

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Aug 18, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Half a century ago, scientists reported evidence of some curious behavior by the immune system in humans and animals: If a host was exposed to an influenza virus and later encountered a variant strain of the same virus, the immune system responded to the second attack largely with the same weapons it used against the first one.

Like an army still fighting by the tactics of the last war, the host immune system mostly produced antibodies matched to the first virus instead of the second, resulting in a less effective defense. With a nod to theology, this phenomenon was labeled "original antigenic sin."

Today, in the face of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus, many countries are preparing to launch H1N1 vaccination campaigns this fall. Millions of people are in groups recommended to receive both seasonal flu immunizations and H1N1 vaccinations. Seasonal flu vaccine—which contains an H1N1 component, distantly related to the novel H1N1 virus—will be available sooner in most places.

This timing has caused some observers to wonder: If a person gets a seasonal flu shot and then an H1N1 dose a few weeks later, will original antigenic sin come into play and cause a poor response to the H1N1 vaccine?

Nobody knows the answer for sure, but leading flu and immunization experts say they aren't especially worried at this point. At the same time, they suggest the possibility bears watching.

"For the time being there is no cause for worry especially for vaccines because the influenza vaccines are really . . . very well known in terms of the seasonal use of these," said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the World Health Organization's Initiative for Vaccine Research, in a recent news briefing.

But there is enough concern so that the H1N1 vaccine clinical trials recently announced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will look into the question. Two of the trials will examine whether giving an H1N1 vaccine and seasonal flu vaccine sequentially or simultaneously affects the immune response to either vaccine, according to the NIAID's descriptions of the trials.

Study raises issue anewA study published recently by the Journal of Immunology raised anew the question of original antigenic sin. Saying that some recent studies have raised doubts about the existence of the phenomenon, scientists at the Emory University Vaccine Center in Atlanta used three different approaches to look for evidence of original antigenic sin in mice. They found evidence of it under certain conditions.

The scientists used two human H1N1 viruses, labeled PR8 and FM1, that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s. They sequentially immunized mice with conventional vaccines using inactivated viruses, and they immunized other mice with DNA vaccines that encoded the hemagglutinin proteins from the two strains. In a third experiment, they sequentially exposed mice to the live viruses. The interval between the two inoculations in most cases was 1 month.

In the mice sequentially immunized with conventional vaccines, the team found minimal differences in antibody responses to the two strains. However, when the mice were then challenged with a high dose of the FM1 virus, the virus multiplied in their lungs far more than it did in the lungs of control mice that had received only the FM1 vaccine.

When mice were sequentially immunized with the DNA vaccines, the team found that the antibody response to the FM1 vaccine was oriented to the PR8 (original) vaccine, and antibodies to the FM1 strain were reduced, according to the report.

However, the original antigenic sin effect was much stronger in the mice that were infected with the two live viruses. "Sequential infection with live viruses generated severely reduced neutralization Ab [antibody] responses and compromised memory responses to the second virus," the report states. The authors suggest that this phenomenon helps explain the success and prevalence of flu viruses: when they mutate, the host immune system is fooled into responding to the predecessor strain instead of the mutated one.

Antigenic distance is keyOn the other hand, original antigenic sin occurs only when the new strain is closely related to one the host has seen before, the scientists write. It is not known exactly how much antigenic similarity (likeness in the amino acid sequences of the hemagglutinin protein of the two strains) between the two strains is necessary to fool the immune system, but past studies have shown that antigenically distant or dissimilar strains fail to trigger original antigenic sin.

That finding seems to suggest that original antigenic sin would not be induced by a novel H1N1 immunization soon after getting a seasonal flu vaccine, as the new virus is not considered a close relative of the H1N1 strain in the seasonal vaccine.

In fact, that's the view of Robert G. Webster, PhD, a highly respected virologist and flu expert who did some of the original research on original antigenic sin decades ago. He is based at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

"The antigenic distance between the seasonal H1N1 and swine flu is very large, so I don't think original antigenic sin is going to be a problem," Webster said in a recent interview.

He said that even if the phenomenon did arise, it might be possible to overcome it by using one of the newer vaccine adjuvants or by increasing the dose of vaccine. "With a larger dose, you can negate the original sin by sort of flooding the receptors with sufficient antigen to negate it," he said.

Jin H. Kim, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate at Emory and the lead author of the recent study, said the type of vaccine is important. He noted his finding that original antigenic sin was minimal when inactivated virus vaccines were used. Similarly, he said by e-mail, two recent studies found little evidence of original antigenic sin when humans received an inactivated vaccine against one seasonal flu strain and later were vaccinated against a drifted variant of that strain.

What about live-virus vaccines?However, the finding that sequential exposure to live viruses invoked a greatly reduced response to the second virus raises the question whether the use of live attenuated vaccines for seasonal flu and the novel virus could lead to a similar response, Kim noted by e-mail. MedImmune, maker of the live attenuated seasonal vaccine FluMist, is also making a live version of novel H1N1 vaccine.

"It is [an] intriguing question whether the live attenuated vaccines would induce original antigenic sin," Kim said. "Our data show that sequential infection with related H1N1 viruses causes significant original antigenic sin and dampens the development of protective immunity. Therefore, it is possible that live attenuated swine origin H1N1 virus vaccine may behave similarly. However, it is important to note that we have not tested this in humans, thus this would be an immature conclusion at this point."

What if seasonal flu and novel H1N1 immunizations are given at the same time? John Treanor, MD, a vaccine researcher at the University of Rochester, said interference between the two vaccines is not likely to be a problem.

He noted that the seasonal vaccine itself normally contains three different strains of flu virus, and interference isn't a big concern. "In the absence of data, it's hard to be completely confident about the potential for interference when the seasonal vaccine is given at the same time as the H1N1 vaccine, but I think the hypothesis is that there will not be interference between components," he said.

Treanor commented that when two vaccines must be given in sequence rather than simultaneously, his view is that they should be separated by at least 2 weeks, mainly to prevent any confusion about attributing side effects. Cautioning that he is not an expert on original antigenic sin, he added, "I do not know if there is really any data that would suggest that such a schedule would or would not result in a decrease in the response to the novel H1N1 (or who knows, maybe an increase)," he said.

For Webster, original antigenic sin is only a minor concern in the current situation with regard to H1N1 vaccination.

"At the moment it's not a big issue, in my opinion," he said. "It's something we have at the back of our minds that we'll watch for. The new H1N1 is antigenically stable, vastly different from the seasonal H1N1, and we need to have vaccine for it wiki-wiki [very fast]."

All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

sociostudent

CDC Report Stirs Controversy For Merck's Gardasil VaccineCervical Cancer Vaccine Linked to Deaths, Incidents of Fainting and Blood Clots By RADHA CHITALEABC News Medical UnitAugust 18, 2009 A government report out today raises new questions about the safety of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil and links the drug to 32 unconfirmed deaths as well as higher incidences of fainting and blood clots than other vaccines. .Emily Tarsell started her daughter Christina on Gardasil -- a vaccine that protects against four of the most common cancer-causing strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) -- after her first visit to a gynecologist and at the doctor's recommendation.

Eighteen days after Christina received her final vaccine shot, she died.

"I know it was the Gardasil," Tarsell said, although the official cause of death was undetermined. "They were really recommending it, saying that there weren't any side effects, that it was safe. So I kind of went against my better instinct [and let her] get the shot." Deaths like Christina's are one of several types of complications reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following Gardasil distribution in 2006, a summary of which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association today. Some of these adverse events were serious, including blood clots and neurological disorders, and some were non-life threatening side effects from the vaccine, including fainting, nausea and fever.

Although experts agree that the accuracy of data from VAERS reports -- which can be made by anyone and are not verified or controlled for quality -- is questionable, they remain divided as to whether extreme adverse events, which are serious but rare, are cause enough to stop recommending and administering the Gardasil vaccine without further investigation.

Report Shows Rare But Serious Side Effects May Result From Gardasil Vaccine

"Although the number of serious adverse events is small and rare, they are real and cannot be overlooked or dismissed without disclosing the possibility to all other possible vaccine recipients," said Dr. Diane Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at University of Missouri. "The rate of serious adverse events is greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer."

As of June 1, 2009, the CDC reported that over 25 million doses of Gardasil, which is recommended for women between ages 9-26, have been distributed in the U.S. and there was an average of 53.9 VAERS reports per 100,000 vaccine doses. Of these, 40 percent occurred on the day of vaccination, and 6.2 percent were serious, including 32 reports of death. VAERS Report Is No Measuring Stick For Gardasil Side Effects

"I'm pro preventing cervical cancer and HPV," said Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, who said he would not offer the Gardasil vaccine to patients when good cervical cancer screening techniques and treatments exist. "I'm not pro that the physicians don't know the risks and side effects." But clinicians on both sides of the vaccination debate agree that data provided by the VAERS report is limited because it lacks any baseline comparison for the adverse events reported. This makes it difficult to draw cause and effect relationships when a death, for example, occurs soon after administering the Gardasil vaccine.

In fact, the JAMA study authors showed that 90 percent of those with blood clots had typical risk factors for clots, outside of having received the vaccine -- using oral contraceptives, for example, or smoking.

"The problem is that there is a difference between an adverse reaction caused by the vaccine, as opposed to an adverse event reported in association with the vaccine," said Dr. Lauren Streicher, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Northwestern Medical School, who supports use of the vaccine. "Patients need to understand the true risk of the vaccine, as well as the risks of not getting the vaccine."

Understanding Risks and Side Effects Essential For Recommending Gardasil

The overwhelming consensus regarding Gardasil use is that physicians who are not well versed in the risks of HPV and cervical cancer and the side effects of the vaccine cannot adequately counsel patients whether or not to be vaccinated.

Dr. Joseph Zanga, chief of pediatrics at the Columbus Regional Healthcare System in Columbus, Ga., pointed out that Gardasil does not prevent women from contracting HPV in every instance, that many people who are infected will spontaneously rid themselves of the virus, and that routine pap smears are still the best prevention against cervical cancer.

"Perhaps the most important, currently missing 'warning' is that the vaccine may not be forever," Zanga said. "We know that it protects for 5-7 years so that a girl getting the series at [age] 11-12 will enter the time of her most likely sexual debut unprotected but believing herself to be." Many Doctors Will Continue to Provide Gardasil

Dr. L. Stewart Massad, the Practice and Ethics Committees chair for the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, said his organization has educated thousands of clinicians about the risks of HPV and the Gardasil vaccine.

"We based our education [program] criteria on data from the CDC's risk assessment," he said. "Certainly there are differences of opinion when it comes to how adverse events are, you have to balance the risk for each patient." Massad also noted that the ASCCP was unable to secure government or other non-profit funding for education outreach programs when the vaccine was first introduced and turned instead to private companies, including Merck, which manufactures Gardasil.

Further Investigation of Adverse Reports Needed

Harper said that the next step in determining the severity of the risks associated with the Gardasil vaccine would be for the CDC to investigate the reported adverse events and verify a causal relationship. But this may prove a difficult task, she said, because many of those events were reported by Merck and did not include sufficient information to perform an investigation.

Still, the report is unlikely to prevent most doctors from continuing to provide the vaccine to patients.

"There are 772 serious problems identified in 23 million doses of vaccine," said Dr. Kevin Ault, associate professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University. "I usually tell my patients that these serious events are tragic, rare and likely unrelated to the vaccine."

sociostudent

CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Animal tests validate Novavax flu vaccine (what does this mean? What was it BEFORE being "corrected"?)Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:47am EDT

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* Vaccine protected ferrets against H1N1

* Even low doses of vaccine worked

(Corrects last paragraph to show the U.S. will produce 20 million doses of vaccine a week after mid-October, not per month)

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A new kind of influenza vaccine works against the new swine flu virus in animals, Novavax, Inc. (NVAX.O) reported on Tuesday.

The company said it made the vaccine, which uses so-called virus-like particles, in fewer than four weeks after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the genetic sequence of the H1N1 swine flu virus, which is now causing a pandemic.

These virus-like particles are a mock version of the virus, made using the genetic sequence.

Novavax said the vaccine protected ferrets against the new pandemic strain. Ferrets are the closest animal to humans when it comes to being infected with influenza.

"The ferrets received a 3.75, 7.5, or 15 microgram dose of the 2009 H1N1 virus-like particle vaccine or a placebo and were boosted with a second dose after three weeks," the company said in a statement.

Researchers at the CDC infected the animals with H1N1 taken from a California patient. "By day five after challenge, immunized ferrets at all vaccine dose levels had cleared the H1N1 virus and showed no sign of disease," the company said.

"In contrast, control animals that received no vaccine displayed lethargy, elevated body temperatures and shed infectious virus for up to six days post-infection," it added.

Novavax would have to get U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval before it could test its new vaccine in people. Years of testing are likely to be required before such a new formulation of a vaccine could be widely used in people.

OLD FASHIONED TECHNOLOGY

Clinical trials of H1N1 vaccine made the old-fashioned way, with chicken eggs, are under way, and five companies are making it for the U.S. market -- AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) MedImmune unit, CSL, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L), Novartis AG (NOVN.VX) and Sanofi-Aventis SA (SASY.PA).

Novavax Inc., based in Rockville, Maryland, has been using its new technology to develop a vaccine against H5N1 avian influenza.

Most influenza vaccines use either a weakened but live flu virus or a killed virus to stimulate the immune system. They must be reformulated every year to match the constantly mutating flu strains and take five to six months to make using specially grown live chicken eggs. Continued...View article on single pagePrevious Page 1 | 2 Next Page

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Family doctors are expected to demand up to £300 million from the Government to carry out a swine flu vaccination campaign, health officials said yesterday.

The British Medical Association (BMA) will resume negotiations with the Government today, asking for additional funding to deliver the mass vaccination programme, a request that some campaigners have branded as ludicrous.

The doctors’ union has been lobbying for several weeks to receive extra payments to deliver a two-shot vaccine against the H1N1 pandemic flu strain, which is likely to be given alongside a seasonal flu jab.

It comes as an NHS agency warned that widespread illness this winter could cause a shortage of blood donations, as people with swine flu are turned away from giving blood. Related LinksOne in three nurses shuns swine flu vaccine Death link to swine flu vaccine MultimediaGraphic: blood stocks

Ministers announced plans last week to inoculate more than 13 million people against the illness, with patients suffering from chronic health conditions and all pregnant women being given priority to receive the jab from October. But doctors are expected to ask for up to £90 million to immunise these at-risk groups, along with key health and social care workers, by the end of the year — the equivalent of £6.92 per vaccine.

This is less than the £7.51 that GPs receive for delivering each vaccine against seasonal flu, but the jab against the pandemic strain could be offered to the entire population eventually, meaning that payments could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Doctors are understood to be seeking payments for all their registered patients who are eligible for a priority vaccination for swine flu, even if these patients do not attend clinics to be immunised. The BMA is also asking for GPs’ performance-related pay to be protected if routine targets such as measuring patients’ blood pressure are affected.

A Whitehall official, who disclosed the requests but did not wish to be named, told The Times: “It’s time GPs didn’t see every health crisis as an opportunity to make money and got back to their real priority of patient care.”

Susie Squire, political director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: “It is the job of GPs to provide frontline healthcare — and they are well paid by taxpayers. To pay them extra to administer swine-flu injections is ludicrous. As doctors they should understand that public health is unpredictable and sometimes there are epidemics or accidents that have to be dealt with, and this can mean unpaid overtime.”

A spokesman for the BMA said that talks were ongoing and declined to comment further last night. Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s GPs’ committee, said earlier: “We are negotiating amicably towards a comprehensive vaccine arrangement for the UK. Talks with the Government remain ongoing and we are hopeful that these discussions will conclude shortly.

“Currently, the health service is working well in response to this enormous challenge and all doctors will continue to work hard on behalf of all their patients.”

Health officials will call today for the number of blood donations to increase by 50 per cent to address an expected shortfall because of flu this winter. Blood supplies normally decline during the winter months but the extent of the problem depends on several factors, including the level and timing of seasonal flu. The NHS Blood and Transplant agency said that it was seeking to increase stocks before an expected second wave of swine flu.

About 7,000 people need to give blood every day to keep up with demand for donations in England and North Wales, and maintain stocks to last five to seven days. However a rise in flu-related illness since April has seen stocks diminish until a recent publicity campaign. The agency says donations needs to rise further by at least 50 per cent on normal levels in order to allow supplies to last longer ahead of the flu season.

Lynda Hamlyn, chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant, appealed to donors to give blood now and to encourage others.

“Like the rest of the NHS, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has been preparing for a flu pandemic for a number of years and has a well-rehearsed plan for maintaining the blood supply,” she said. “We are looking to increase our stock by approximately 50 per cent above normal levels to ensure we continue to meet the demand from hospitals throughout this winter period.

“We hope ‘buddying up’ will encourage more people to give blood and spread the word.”

Two vaccines for swine flu are being tested in trials run by the University of Leicester and the Health Protection Agency. A decision on licensing is expected at the end of next month.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately

Related Links Hillsborough schools warn parents about swine fluGovernor urges caution over swine flu in schoolsSchool board: Cancel attendance incentive because of swine fluSPECIAL REPORT: Swine FluTAMPA, FL -- The Hillsborough County Health Department says the Swine Flu will be at its worst at local schools in early September, but they don't expect the vaccine until October.

Director Dr. Douglas Holt predicts the Swine Flu will turn up in every single Hillsborough County school by the first week of September. But without a vaccine until October, the risk is greatest at these 242 schools.

"Most of the cases we are currently seeing are in children but also 15 to 19 year olds", said Holt. He said the biggest challenge is combating the illness.

The Health Department expected to have enough shots for everyone, but US health officials announced a shortfall in the vaccine Tuesday. They only have 45 million doses and need 120 million to distribute nationwide.

Amena Mian is frustrated the school is telling her the news one week from the start of the school year.

"The swine flu has been going around for a year now so yes, I'm concerned as a parent for my children its dangerous and its deadly," said Mian.

To limit the exposure to the virus, School Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia says staff will constantly monitor bathrooms for refills at soap dispensers, wipe down tables and desks as kids leave the classroom or the cafeteria and educate kids on basic hygiene. Students who seem sick will be sent home.

"I think it's important for parents to plan that they may have their child ill at home," said Elia.

Parent Laurel Gramig said she is ready.

"We have a plan at home that there will be care at home if they need to stay home," said Gramig.

The chances that her first graders Jim and Claire Gramig will be sent home are pretty good. Holt predicts 30% of Hillsborough County school kids will stay home, that's nearly 56,000 kids.

Even though the amount of kids who are sick will probably be at an all time high, Holt says he doesn't plan to close any schools.

"I don't see a lot of circumstances where closing the school are likely," said Holt.

The Health Director says they will only shut down schools if most of the at risk kids are sick in the school or if teachers and staff are so sick they can't run the school.

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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately